OIAR - Chapter 60

It was the one-month mark of working at Raul's office. Shioana was now able to have simple conversations with Thompson and Murphy.

She had become completely familiar with the work, so she was able to handle more than the workload Raul had requested.

Shioana displayed tremendous concentration whenever she looked at documents. For at least for the moment she was working, she could forget the gloomy reality surrounding her.

'The scale of the business is bigger than I thought.'

Raul's business seemed to extend beyond just one spot in Sector 8, covering the entire empire. Its scale was incomparable to Regbell's estate accounting, so a major mistake could occur if one was not focused.

While she was deeply engrossed in the work, Shioana almost screamed as a shadow fell over the documents.

“You were surprised!”

As she breathed a sigh of relief, Raul tossed his gloves onto the desk and spoke curtly.

"I called you several times, and you're the one who didn't know. Besides, I don't give you more money just because you work hard."

Raul, whom she hadn't seen in three days, was wearing a jacket he didn't usually wear and even a cravat. His black hair was neatly combed, and he exuded an indescribable dignity. He looked so dapper that it was hard to even think of his usual pirate-like appearance.

'You have no idea how popular our boss is!'

Usually, Shioana could not agree with Murphy's words at all.

'Yeah, well, I kind of understand it.'

Shioana, who kept glancing around curiously at the unfamiliar sight, muttered to herself.

"Why?"

Raul tilted his head as he scanned the documents Shioana had organized.

"No. It's just that you look a little different today."

"Ah? This outfit? It was the day I was meeting someone."

Raul roughly pulled on his cravat as if feeling stifled, then lightly shook the documents he was holding.

"By the way, young lady noble, where on earth did you learn something like this?"

Even if it wasn't Urcheka, he had never heard of a noble lady being good at calculations like this.

"Something just happened."

Shioana handled foreign languages without any difficulty.

She has no idea how much work efficiency has increased thanks to the new secretary handling things properly.

Raul, with the corners of his mouth whitened in satisfaction, quietly began to speak.

"I have a unique eye for people."

Raul leaned back in his chair and stared intently at Shioana's face.

It was not only Shioana's beautiful face that caught his eye from the start. There was an extraordinary aura despite her shabby appearance.

'So that's why, I thought?'

After finishing his background check on Shioana, he could not contain his surprise.

The daughter of a fallen Viscount was raising a child without a father.

Life in District 8 was so tough that she should have been more than exhausted by now. Yet, she did not give up. She responsibly carried out whatever task was assigned to her. The first job she did was simple manual labor, which must have been quite difficult for a noblewoman to handle.

"That little kid is lucky."

"... Yes?"

"I'm talking to myself, so keep working."

A faint sense of loneliness flickered across his face.

Raul knew all too well what the sorrow of a foreigner in a foreign country was like.

His mother, a famous dancer, met a nobleman while performing in Urceka. He fell in love at first sight with her long, luscious black hair and clear eyes.

"Jasmine, please allow me."

The nobleman who was whispering words of love acted as if he would give everything to his mother.

However, nothing was kept. He was already a married man with several children, and when his mother became pregnant, he turned his back on her.

'Who said I wanted a child?'

The pregnant mother was abandoned in a small, leaky house in District 8. Losing her mind due to the betrayal of the one she loved, the mother gradually went insane.

"Go out and pickpocket or do something!"

His mother, who lived a life of alcoholism, forced Raul to do all sorts of bad things. She beat him at the slightest provocation and hurled abusive language at him. On days when he failed to bring back alcohol, she wouldn't even let him into the house. Due to his environment, Raul learned how important money was from a very young age.

Here, people sold and killed others for money.

He grew up at the very bottom of Urcheka and became strong.

'It's fascinating.'

He watched Shioana with his hand resting on his chin, and it was becoming increasingly intriguing. He wondered what allowed her to endure without breaking down, and what distinguished her from his mother, who had been swept away without holding on.

"Boss, you’ll have to pay the price for staring at me like that. I’m not a beast in a cage."

As Shioana argued while still burying her nose in the documents, he scratched the back of his head.

"Being obsessed with money is a truly admirable attitude."

"...Is that so?"

Shioana's lips twisted slightly. It was because she remembered someone saying that a woman who only cared about money was not his type.

'You don't even know what it means to be broke.'

She felt unnecessarily angry at Duke Bernhard, who was wrapped up in expensive things from head to toe.

'Is someone's taste just their own?'

It was just that she was confused because of the face and voice that resembled Etienne.

The numbers on the document she was looking at looked all smudged in the Duke's mind.

'Good job. Not working, just thinking like this.'

Shioana's cheeks flushed slightly out of sheer embarrassment.

"What's with that expression?"

"...What?"

"Did you feel embarrassed looking at me just now?"

"... Yes?"

Shioana frowned as she watched Raul suddenly make a strange sound. There was absolutely no reason for her to feel embarrassed looking at him.

"Was that what you meant earlier when you said I looked different?"

Shioana shook her head vigorously at Raul's troubled expression.

"I'm sorry, but I have someone else I like."

However, he took Shioana's words as a half-hearted excuse and lightly rubbed his chin.

"I'm indeed quite popular, so it's only natural that you fell for me."

"I see. Since you are so popular, I guess I don't need to add to that."

After finishing her words, Shioana flipped through the documents with a crisp clatter.

'Oh no! I'm actually starting to miss how you were at the beginning.'

However, contrary to her words, Shioana's confident face wasn't bad, so he smiled.

***

Shioana smiled bashfully as she walked through the market holding a shopping basket. Earlier, when she was leaving the office, Raul had specially added two extra silver coins to her weekly wage.

"This is the price of becoming the beast within us."

It was just a joke, but Raul, saying he hated empty words, slipped her some money and pushed her forward.

"If it's like this, I guess I should tell you it's okay to keep looking at my face."

As she looked into the bountiful shopping basket filled with fresh fruit she rarely ate, medicine said to be good for Martha's joints, and bread, she burst into a broad smile again. She couldn't quite remember the last time she had laughed like this.

In the beginning, after crossing over to Urcheka, she just trembled with fear, as if Count Noah would come to capture her at any moment.

"You really never know what will happen in life."

Although Shioana had crossed over to Urcheka, she wasn't this full of enthusiasm from the start. She couldn't tell Martha, but she just wanted to die.

'Etienne isn't here, so what's the point of living like this?'

However, the reason she couldn't do so was because of a small life. Not long before she and Martha left Regbell, they received this spoiled letter.

The letter, with its jumbled handwriting as if dictated by someone, stated that Shioana had a nephew.

'That can't be true.'

Shioana could not help but believe it after verifying the signatures of Elizabeth Demory and Eli Evgenia on the enclosed marriage certificate. So, when she stopped by Highbell, a maid looking visibly ill was holding a baby.

'He is Master Harriet.'

Shioana carefully held the baby in her arms.

It was so small that she was worried it might break.

It was not difficult to find Eli's face on the blonde, blue-eyed baby.

'The mistress passed away without even being able to hold the young master once.'

Shioana felt a deep sense of kinship with her nephew, who seemed to have fallen from the sky.

'You're pitiful.'

Growing up without a mother was by no means an easy task. She would not have been able to endure it without Martha's devoted love and Regbell, who offered a generous embrace.

'Dahlia, let's take good care of Harriet together.'

She suggested to the maid who had been at Harriet's mother's deathbed that they go together, but she shook her head.

'I would only be a burden, so I will stay here. Please take good care of the young master.'

There was sincerity in Dahlia's eyes, which were deeply sunken.

Feeling like she was about to cry, Shioana pressed her sleeve against her eyes and deliberately spoke up bravely.

"Instead of doing this, I need to hurry before it gets dark."

Now she just needs to buy some meat to go back, but she's already getting anxious.

'Don't be like that, let's get married, okay?'

The sly voice of the man with yellow teeth was vivid in her ears.

“It’s really annoying.”

If there had been another butcher shop, she would have gone there, but since there was only one, she had no choice.

As Shioana arrived with her face pulled back to cover it as much as possible, the man who was cutting pork with a large kitchen knife stopped what he was doing.

"Who is this? Isn't this our pretty one?"

The surrounding merchants responded to his blatant attitude by whistling.

No, what is so great about a woman with a child that he’s hanging himself like that?

"Hey kid, I don't care, I'm telling you this face is totally my type."

"Stop the nonsense and give me some meat."

She usually just listened half-heartedly because she didn't want to get involved, but today it was hard to bear. To them, harassing a helpless woman was a form of entertainment. Completely disregarding the feelings of the victim was no different from violence.

"Don't misunderstand. I confessed to you with a truly sincere heart. I haven't even given a single glance to any other customers."

Shioana was just annoyed by the man who kept blabbering on about things she didn't want to know at all.

Just then, the surroundings became chaotic, and someone put their arm around Shioana's shoulder. The butcher, blinded by jealousy, raged without even recognizing the person.

"No, why are you laying your hands on someone else's wife?"

"...It probably isn't yours, is it?"

An excessively low and sharp voice brushed past Shioana's ears.

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